 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankara IS Academy for the date 22nd June and 23rd June of 2019. Here are the news articles which has been chosen for analysis from 22nd June and here are the news articles which has been chosen for analysis from 23rd June along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram editions. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box below and for the benefit of smartphone users, the timestamping is also provided in the comment section. Let us move on to the first article analysis. This article is an editorial which is about the Southern Asian geopolitics. The discussion will be helpful in mains preparation under general studies paper 2 in the area India and its neighborhood relations, bilateral regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests, then in effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests Indian diaspora. In this article, the author discusses about the Southern Asian geopolitics. So, what is this geopolitics? It is the politics with respect to the international relations. When the politics in international relations is influenced by geographical factors, it can be said as geopolitics period or we can say that geopolitics attempts to explain the international politics in terms of geography that is the location, size and resources of places. The author is saying that the nature and dynamics of South Asian geopolitics are undergoing a radical transformation. By radical transformation, the author means that there is going to be an extreme social or political change in the Southern Asian region. The author says that this transformation is happening slowly, steadily and in an irrevocable manner. The author also says that the Southern Asian region is the most volatile regions in the world, meaning there is a constant change in the political dominance in the region. It can be said that this region was previously dominated by the United States, but now the region is experiencing an inflection point or turning point. These turning points have extensive implications for the countries in the region and that too specially for India. The author says the region is having an understated power competition. This is because of two reasons from the side of USC. One is that USC is neither accepting that its glory of being an influencer is fading in the South Asian region nor it is willing to do the things that is required to maintain its regional influence in the South Asian region. This can be understood using one example. When India and Pakistan engaged in counter military attacks like the Pulwama and Balakot attacks, the regional traditional arbitrator which is the US did not play any significant role to reduce the tensions between the two countries. But if you see historically in many occasions such as even during the Kargil war of 1999, the then President of USA that is the President Bill Clinton was the single greatest influence in bringing an end to the war. But in the recent skirmishes or episodes of irregular fights between India and Pakistan, USA failed to play its role as an influential leader in the South Asian region. Even after this, when China and Russia tries to mediate and simultaneously challenges USA in the regional political landscape, USA gives a negative response. It tries to push back China and Russia. The author says USA is neither doing its role nor it is allowing other emerging powers or existing powers to handle the situation. Now this leads to short-sighted decisions and it leads to confused policies from the side of USA. As an example for the confused policies, we can take the example of termination of India's preferential trade status under generalized system of preferences that is GSB. Now this termination not only has implications on the Indian industries but it also affects US industries. That is why we are saying this is a confused policy. And also we can see that China and Russia are jointly and individually challenging USA's preeminence or superiority in the region. This can be seen in the recent Shanghai Cooperation Summit. Based on this, the author says that China and Russia are drafting or pulling smaller countries of the region into their sites. The author argues that even though we oppose the idea of unipolarity, we can opt for two things. First, a benign unipolarity. Second, a balanced multipolarity added with some amount of great power concert, which is generally better than unbalanced multipolarity. Now this comment of author might be little confusing. So let us understand this now. Unipolarity in international politics means the distribution of power in which there is one state with most of the cultural, economic, and military influence. Whereas multipolarity means the distribution of power in which more than two nation states have nearly equal amounts of military, cultural, and economic influence. You can take the example of USA and the then Soviet Union. When Soviet Union was there, it was multipolarity and after that it was unipolarity. The author is saying that an unharmful or kind and gentle unipolarity or a balanced influence of two or more major nations which are acting together is better than the unbalanced multipolarity, which can be seen now in the region with the presence of USA, Russia and China. The author is saying that USA, Russia and China are in an unbalanced multipolarity. Now when this unbalanced multipolarity is combined with a situation of change in power in the regional area, it might lead to destabilizing of the countries in the region. The author worries that perhaps currently we are in the middle of such a moment in southern Asia. Next, the author says that there is the emergence of China pivot in the region, which means that China is emerging as the kingpin or central power in the southern Asian region. Now because of this, the fame of USA as the regional central power and power manager in the southern Asian region is becoming a matter of the past. The author says that China is increasingly becoming able and willing to assume that role, that is the role of central power. Now this is clearly visible from the recent SCO summit as the regional geopolitics from Iran to Central Asia and from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean region is increasingly being shaped by China. So the author calls China as the new regional hegemon, that is the new regional supreme leader or superpower. Also if you note many countries are also openly supporting China without much resistance. The reason for this is that when new powers are on the rise then the neighboring countries of such a rising country tend to recalibrate or readjust their policies so that they can renew their old partnership and alliances with that superpower in order to get the support of the rising superpower. So the author says if this is happening then the regional holdouts or unaccepting countries and challengers such as India will need to balance themselves and this balancing have to be done tactfully that is with skill and sensitivity. This tactful balancing is necessary to stay away from the ire or anger of the rising superpower. Next the author talks about what are the threatening signs in the current regional subsystems that is the countries who are part of southern Asian region. The first sign is the presence of an extreme trust deficit among various actors in the region. Here by actor the author means the country. This trust deficit or lack of trust can be seen in the case of India and Pakistan or China and India who historically does not trust each other. But the author worries about the trust deficit that exists between the seemingly congenial or like-minded partners such as the US and India, Russia and China. Here the commonalities or like-minded views in case of US and India can be seen in the shared democratic values, energy security, concern with Islamic radicalism, the aggressive rise of China, the future of Afghanistan and the geopolitical architecture of Indo-Pacific etc. They all point to the growing convergences of strategic interests between the two countries. But still US has removed the GSP preferential status of India and is threatening India with Khatsa for making a deal with Russia. So that is why the author is worried about the trust deficit between India and USA. Then there is also trust deficit among the traditional partners such as Iran and India, Russia and India also. This is because of the sanctions of the US on Iran. Then this is because India is confused and trying to balance between Russia and US especially in the matter of S-400 trimus deal. The next sign is that the varying degrees of trust deficit when combined with other factors such as undissolved conflict misunderstandings or the occurrence of a crisis, this could easily push the region towards more conflict and friction as there is lack of trust on one another. Thus it will further lead to less cooperation and less regional integration. Now all these factors point to the third sign that is the rising war talk in the region. Every day we are discussing about the conflicts between the countries that is going on already. So the conflict may give rise to the following possibilities which are the possibility of a military conflict between and the US because of the growing tensions in the Persian Gulf. Now this conflict in turn will pull or drag many more countries in the region into the conflict as some would support Iran and some would support US and thus in turn all this will lead to widespread instability in the region. Now the next possibility is the border skirmishes or irregular fights between India and Pakistan which is already happening sometimes. Then the next possibility is escalation of already escalating China-US trade war and then the possibility of many proxy and cold wars in Afghanistan and West Asia. Proxy war is a war that is instigated or encouraged by a major power such as US but the major power does not become involved by itself and cold war as we know is the state of political aggression between countries which can be characterized by threats, propaganda and other measures except open warfare. So the author says all these possibilities will keep the temperature high in the southern Asian region at least for some time in the future. So far we discussed about the change of polarity or power in the southern Asian region. Then also we discussed about the unrests in the region but these conditions are not favorable for India because India is caught right in the middle of these tectonic meaning very significant developments because now India has to balance its cooperation between the existing and the rising superpowers. The author also criticizes India because India has a habit of reacting to the above discussed geopolitical developments with tardiness that is very late only. Even though India reacts late the author says India is likely to adopt a large number of balancing acts and carrying out balancing acts is the most appropriate strategy now but it has to be done with a sense of clarity and purpose instead of just reacting to the developments. So in this context the author lists the least five layers of balancing acts that India would need to adopt. These acts are in order to withstand and survive the incoming geopolitical trouble. First at level one India needs to balance its natural desire to get closer to the US even though some unavoidable necessities may arise. This has to be done so that it does not provoke China both in maritime and continental domains and also India should avoid getting close to China as well because it will provoke US which is already having many discrepancies with India like not giving equitable access to India's market. Then the second layer of this balancing game should drive or push India's West Asia policy. The author says here India would have to take care of its energy and other interests with Iran and while taking care of Iran India should not alienate or detach from US, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Also Iran's share in India's energy imports is steadily decreasing. So even alienating Iran might not suit India's strategic interests in the long run. Now this is because US, Israel and the Gulf countries especially Saudi Arabia and UAE are coming closer to counter Iran's increasing influence in the West Asian region and the region is a part of India's extended neighborhood also. Here the stakes are too high for India particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council that is GCC countries because almost eight million Indians live and work in the GCC countries and they remit to India over 35 billion dollars annually which is the largest from any part of the world and also the Persian Gulf region alone accounts for more than 63% of India's total hydrocarbon imports and GCC countries are one of India's largest trade partners. Now if you see all these conditions India's stakes are very high in the region. Now considering these stakes India has followed a middle part so far in its policy towards this region so as to ensure its economic and strategic interests in the region. So based on this the primary goal for India always have been to ensure security and safety of its eight million people living in the region and secure an uninterrupted supply of oil and gas from the region and also to mitigate the negative impacts of extremist groups like Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Now if India cannot balance between these countries then India will be at loss. Then as the third balancing act India's dealing with the Russia-China partnership will be crucial. This will help in India's continental strategy as it will help in arms sales or checking the Chinese dominance in the region also. Along with this India should be clever enough to exploit the not so clearly visible disagreements between China and Russia. Then another concern is the growing relationship between Pakistan and Russia. This must be dealt with smart diplomacy rather than outrage so that India does not anger its traditional ally Russia. Then another layer requires a careful balancing by India. It is the strategic partnership between Pakistan and China. While Pakistan is the revisionist power in the region, revisionist power means a condition where a country is filled with dissatisfaction with the international order. Instead of acting to preserve the international order a revisionist or revolutionary state has a strong will to change the norms which is accepted by status co-nations. Here the status co-nations can be defined as a state which seeks to work within the existing international system and it does not challenge the current order. The author says that China is a rising superpower and it is already a status quoist power in the region. So China can be persuaded to check Pakistan's revisionist tendencies. This persuasion requires subtle efforts from New Delhi to convince Beijing that is from India to convince China that it has great stakes in regional stability as we have discussed above. The author says what actually is to be noted is that both China and India even though they have sharp differences and unavoidable strategic competition they share a stake in the stability of the region. Therefore even a small measure of rapprochement that is establishment of a harmonious relationship between the countries like it is existing today can help in stabilizing the region to a greater extent. Then the final layer is that if India is serious about having a say in Afghanistan's future it would need to enact several balancing acts like balancing between Russia and China then China and Pakistan the Taliban and Kabul and then finally the Taliban and Pakistan. Now you may think why is Afghanistan's future is important to India. This is because since the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1980 and particularly since the fall of Taliban regime in 2001 both India and Pakistan have placed their conflict into the affairs of Afghanistan and both the countries perceive influence in Afghanistan as a critical measure. This is to achieve the primary national security objectives of both the countries namely India and Pakistan but these both countries need national security for different reasons. India wants it because by strengthening Afghanistan India advances its own national security objectives such as eliminating a critical safe haven in Afghanistan for terrorists who have attacked India and who continue plotting to do so in the future. Then it will help India to project its power throughout South Asia and even beyond and it will also lead to gaining access to centralation trade and energy resources but this also involves minimizing Pakistan's influence in the region and the Indian policy towards Afghanistan primarily wants to advance India's broader domestic and regional interests independent of Pakistan. But in contrast if you see Pakistan's goal for Afghanistan are mainly India centric. Pakistan seeks a weak Kabul government which is dominated by a easily bent and supportive Taliban so that it can maintain a strategic depth against an Indian invasion so that it can guarantee a safe haven for anti-Indian proxies then also to undermine Delhi's influence in Afghanistan and then finally also to prevent Indian power projection in the broader South or Central Asian region and then also to obstruct India's ability to support separatists in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. So to stop all these from happening India's interest should evolve in Afghanistan and India have to balance between all these countries. The author concludes by saying that Indian government should keep in mind that it must by all means be careful to avoid getting caught in a nutcracker geopolitical situation in the region. Here by nutcracker situation the author means the situation when India is caught between the rising superpowers and doesn't know which one to support. So engaging in a delicate balancing game is the need of the hour. Hence balancing such contradictions without laws to the country on every front is actual achievement of marked diplomacy. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about the decisions arrived at the 35th meeting of GST council. This article discussion will be relevant in a brilliant syllabus under the area of current events of national importance and then in economic development. The discussion will also be relevant in a main syllabus in GST paper 2 under the area important aspects of e-governance applications models successes and then in GST paper 3 under Indian economy. If you remember we discussed about the GST council on 21st June and we said that the decisions will be discussed in detail after the meeting is completed. It was completed on 21st June and this meeting was the 35th meeting of the GST council. At the 35th meeting of the GST council an important decision was taken with respect to the use of Aadhar for GST registration. The council has decided to allow the use of Aadhar as an identity and address proof for GST registration. This has been done for the purpose of doing business with ease. Earlier for GST registration it required identity proof, address proof and several other documents. Now no other documents would be required in addition to Aadhar. The council has also set a deadline for the rollout of single return filing system and the deadline is 1st January 2020. Here it is single monthly return filing process. The returns which are filed will have the details such as supplies input tax credit and taxes paid and other information. Usually before this the trade community will have to file around 36 returns. There is also an annual return in addition to this 36 returns but with the new single return every month this will just become 12. Now this is one another measure for the ease of doing business. See here annual return is a statement of return to be filed electronically every year by each registered person under GST. These returns will have details such as information about outward supply input tax credits claimed and refund claimed in a financial year. This is being done according with section 44 subsection 1 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act of 2017 and there are also few exemptions to the procedure mandated under the sections. Also the council has decided to introduce the electronic invoicing system for business to business transactions. The phase one of this system is proposed to be voluntary and it will be rolled out from 1st January 2020. The introduction is expected to have the benefits of increased tax complaints and production in tax evasion. Tax evasion also includes evasion from paying part of the tax also. With e-invoicing the bills cannot be altered to evade tax among business entities. Thus the e-invoicing technology will play a crucial role in tax administration. It also has the benefit of removing the burden of generating e-way bill. E-way bill or electronic way bill is a document that needs to be generated before transporting goods worth more than Rs. 50,000 within state or from one state to another. The physical copy of e-way bill must be present with the transporter and should also include details of goods, recipients, consigner and transporter. The e-way bill was rolled out at the national level on 1st April 2018. Then the article also stated that the tenure of the national anti-profit hearing authority has been extended by two years. The national anti-profit hearing authority has been constituted under section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act of 2017. This NAA or national anti-profit hearing authority comes under Department of Revenue and Ministry of Finance. The role of NAA is to ensure that the reduction in tax rate or benefit of input tax credit is passed on to the customer by commensurate reduction in prices. This means, for example, consider there is a product whose GST tax rate is 12%. If the tax rate is reduced to 5%, then the price should reduce accordingly. If the tax amounts to Rs. 12 earlier, now based on this reduction, the tax will be Rs. 5. There should be a price fall of at least Rs. 7 and this price fall has to be ensured and this is ensured by national anti-profit hearing authority. And also NAA can examine and check who has not passed on the benefit of reduction in the tax rate and recommend punitive actions including cancellation of registration. Now, let us see what is input tax credit. Now, take an automobile manufacturer. He purchases tires as input to develop his final output which is a car. While purchasing the tires, he would have spent some money by paying tax for tires. This tax paid for the input is called as input tax. He also has a liability to pay a final tax on the final product that is the car. So, the money that he has spent for input tax will be reduced from his tax liability on the final product. Here it means as if he is getting back the credit that is paid as input tax. This credit is called as input tax credit. Now, when a person has not already paid the input tax and somehow wrongly avails the input tax credit while paying the tax on output, it becomes an offence. There are firms which have allegations of wrongfully availing the input tax credit worth of thousands of crores. Now, also know that section 16 of the central goods and services tax of 2017 deals with the input tax credit and section 69 and section 132 deals with illegal availing of input tax credit. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article. This article is about the South Asian region having a shared vision to attain the sustainable development goals. This article discussion will be relevant in prelims under current events of national and international importance. Know that sustainable development goals are going to be there for sure till 2030. So, there will not be any major change with respect to the SDG goals or targets. Hence, make sure you know these goals and their numbers clearly. So, based on this, the article is also relevant in economic and social development. And further, the article can be linked to main syllabus in General Studies Paper 2 under regional groupings involving India and affecting India's interests and also in important international institutions and fora their structure and mandate. The author in this editorial bats or supports for a common understanding in the South Asian region on the regional integration and cooperation in achieving the sustainable development goals. The South Asian region includes eight countries. They are India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. These eight countries are also member nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. That is SARC. India is a major player in this region. This region covers just 3.5% of the world's land surface area, but it hosts about 25% of the world's population. Because of the population or the human resources in the region, the region has significant importance for international development. These countries are geographically closer. They have common socio-cultural bonds, but still this South Asian region is one of the least integrated regions in the world. Now, in terms of integration, the foreign policy experts generally suggest that whenever trade between the countries in a region is going very well, that is a good sign to say that the region is well integrated. But if you look at South Asian region, the intra-regional trade is just 5% of the total trade that these countries do at the global level. As one another parameter, the author uses the intra-regional investment. Here intra means within. So, intra-regional trade means the regional trade within these countries or intra-regional investment means the regional investment within these countries. The intra- regional investment is less than 1% of the region's overall global investment. This means if the total investment made by the South Asian region is 100, but if you look at the investment that come to these countries from among the countries in the same region, it is less than 1%. The author points to the lack of cooperation in investment among the countries in the region. So, he says that the economic cooperation is less than adequate. Next, the average per capita GDP in South Asia is 90% lesser than the global average and about 30% of the world's poor population live in this region, but this region is also fastest growing region of the world. These are some of the challenges and there are various other economic and environmental challenges also. If we see the common developmental challenges in the region, they are equality, poverty, weak governance and poor infrastructure. Let us now have an outlook on the performance of South Asia with respect to the SDGs. An assessment based on SDG index 2018 states that only Bhutan and Sri Lanka in South Asia are in top 100 ranks out of 156 countries in terms of progress in SDGs. Then India's rank in this progress is 112. SDG index 2018 was prepared and produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, that is SDSN and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. A Bertelsmann Stiftung is a private foundation that engages in non-profit activities and it is based in Germany. Then a closer look at the country level data of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan reveals that there are similarities among the three countries in achieving some specific goals such as SDG 1, 6, 12 and 13. Also, there are similarities in the display of poor progress also. All the three countries are lagging or having poor progress with respect to goals 2, 5 and 9. Now this is about the three big economies in South Asia and if overall we see persistent challenges of the entire South Asian region is with respect to the goals in industry, innovation and infrastructure, zero hunger, gender equality, education, sustainable cities and communities, decent work and economic growth and the region is also vulnerable to climate change and climate induced natural disasters. Therefore, there must be a regional strategic approach to tackle common development challenges. So countries in the South Asian region must cooperate at least to achieve these common development challenges. Then the author says that there is lack of initiatives in this region to have a shared vision and cooperation to achieve the SDG goals by 2030. If there is a shared vision for attaining SDG goals, this will give enormous opportunities for cooperation, collaboration and convergence. These are called as the three C opportunities of shared vision. Then the author says that the sustainable development goals are more universal, inclusive and integrated than the millennium development goals. Many goals are transnational in nature and therefore require regional efforts. According to the author, SDGs which are related to energy, biodiversity, infrastructure, climate resilience and capacity development are transnational in nature. So a uniform policy in these areas is necessary because the best policy can be adopted together as it avoids duplication of efforts and it also increases efficiency. Therefore, it is more important now for the South Asian countries to adopt a regional framework of cooperation for SDGs. This framework will support, strengthen and stimulate the work towards achieving these goals. This framework should also have a regional synergy to achieve the goals. Then the author notes that to address the institutional and infrastructural deficits or gaps, a deeper cooperation is required among the countries. Every country in this region has certain lacunae that can be addressed by some best practices by other country in the same region. For example, if you take Maldives, there is no availability of data for many of the SDG targets and indicators. If it could get support and capacity development in these matters from other countries. And if you take India, India has made practical plans and initiatives to improve food security. So other nations can benefit from these initiatives of India by cooperation. Then for achieving the SDGs, financing is required. These finances shall be obtained from the public sector, private sector, public-private partnerships, external sectors and also from non-governmental organizations. And for financing in South Asian regions, the countries can work towards increasing the flow of intra-regional foreign direct investment. Also for economic cooperation in the region, the author highlights regional initiatives such as the Bay of Bengal initiative for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation that is BIMSTEC and the Bangladesh-Butan-India-Napal initiative that is BBIN. As these initiatives bring the countries closer together both economically and also socially. But the author says that there is scope for much more, particularly in working for achieving the SDGs. According to this author, SAR platform is a platform for regional economic cooperation in this region. But this platform has now almost lost its life and remains unsuccessful in promoting the regional economic cooperation. This platform should be active and take appropriate steps to have a regional approach for SDGs. The region of South Asia is the fastest growing region in the world. If the countries in this region could come together at a common understanding on regional integration and cooperation in achieving the SDGs, there will be a powerful regional synergy. And this synergy will lead to convergence or a kind of oneness. If there is such oneness in achieving SDGs, then no one will be left behind in South Asia in the journey towards eliminating poverty and also enduring dignity to all. With this, we have come to the end of this article discussion. Moving on to the next news article, which is about the editorial on the report World Population Prospects of 2019. The analysis of this editorial will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance and then also under economic and social development, particularly in demographics. We will be seeing some statistics related to this article. You can use them in your main answer related to demographics. So, the analysis will be helpful in your general studies paper one under population and associated issues also. Now, let us see some facts about this World Population Prospects 2019. The World Population Prospects 2019 is published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. This UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is a part of United Nations Secretariat. This report provides a detailed overview of global demographic patterns and the prospects. Here prospects means the possibility or likelihood of occurring of some future event. Now, let us see the editorial. As per this report, India is projected to become the most populous country by the year 2027. So, India will overtake or surpass China to become the world's most populous nation and India will host 1.64 billion that is 164 crore people by the year 2050 and also know that India's current population is 1.36 billion or 136 crores. Within 10 years, the world's population is likely to be 8.5 billion that is 850 crores and the population is likely to go up to 9.7 billion that is 970 crores by 2050. If you see the present population of the world is approximately 7.3 billion that is 730 crores. So, try to represent the data in a graph format while writing your main answer. Now, the author has told that the world has successfully overcome the Malthusian theory predictions. In short, Malthus theory predicts that if population grows much faster than food production, then this population will outgrow its resources leading to a host of problems. According to Malthus, there are two types of checks that can reduce a population's growth rate. One is preventive checks which are voluntary actions that people can take to avoid contributing to the population. Then other is positive checks. Positive checks to population growth are things that may shorten the average lifespan of a person such as disease, warfare, famine, and poor living and working environments. According to Malthus, eventually these positive checks would result in a Malthusian catastrophe which is also sometimes called as Malthusian crisis. This Malthusian crisis is a forced return of a population to the basic survival. But this did not happen. Instead, the world's population is still growing. The author tells that there are strong arguments in favor of stabilizing the population numbers in the future. This is possible only when the quality of life of people is raised. Also, when the sustainable development goals are achieved without destroying the environment. The author also mentions that the key message from this report is national leaders must read double their efforts to raise education, health, and living standards for people everywhere. Next, the author has discussed the migration trends from this report. The UN report shows that migration to countries will be a steady one where the working-age population is reducing because these countries have to open up their economy in order to sustain the economic production. This report tells that Japan has the lowest working-age population ratio. It is followed by Europe and Caribbean islands. The report also mentions that by the next three decades, that is by the next 30 years, North America, Eastern and South Eastern Asia will also have low working-age population ratio. But this trend is exactly opposite for India. India will have a vast number of young people but the natural resources to meet the needs of this population will not be sufficient. The author says that if India undergoes a revolution in skilling its population, that is increasing the skill levels of the population, where the population can perform jobs in a proper manner, then the Indian population will get opportunities and the population can also migrate to these countries where the working-age population is likely to reduce. Next, the author quotes the data from sample registration system. The main objective of sample registration system is to provide reliable estimates of fertility and mortality, including total fertility, infant and child mortality rate. This sample registration system is managed by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. As per this sample registration system, the states with high fertility rates are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The author tells that the higher fertility rates that exist in these states are a challenge to India's goal of stabilizing the population growth. The author also mentions that these goals are possible only if the respective state governments set their minds to reducing the population. Then the author tells that the state governments should focus on education and health for the women, so that both of these factors will help the women to get employed. Next, the author has touched upon life expectancy. Life expectancy is nothing but the time period which the humans or any other living organisms are expected to live. If you see, according to the latest WHO data, which was published in 2018, the total life expectancy in India is 68.8 years, out of which male has a life expectancy of 67.4 years and female has a life expectancy of 70.3 years. The author tells that the rise in life expectancy should be addressed by India in the coming years. He also mentions that new opportunities for employment will rise for this set of population, that is the old age population. Next, the author discusses about the urban facilities. He tells that the government must reimagine or replan on developing the urban facilities with special focus on access to goods, affordable housing and mobility. Then the author mentions that the Sustainable Development Goals framework provides a roadmap for the nations to focus on the development activities in a sustainable manner. But the author mentions that the progress in poverty reduction, greater equality, better nutrition, universal education and healthcare requires state support and strong civil society institutions. Then next, the author suggests that the government should focus on making the agriculture remunerative, that is the farmers should get the right price for their produce. At the same time, the government should also keep the food prices stable. If the prices are stable, then it would ensure proper nutrition for all. Finally, the author mentions that to achieve all these, political will is required. So, the leaders should focus on improving the quality of life for the people of India. Since, improving the quality of life is crucial as India is said to become the most populous nation as projected in this UN report. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next news article discussion, which is about the Financial Action Task Force. This article discussion will be relevant in Prince syllabus under the area current events of national and international importance. Then the discussion will also be helpful in main syllabus in General Studies paper two, under the area important international institutions, the structure and mandate. And also in General Studies paper three, in security particularly under the area role of external state actors in creating challenges to internal security. Here, the external state refers to Pakistan. Recently, the financial action task force has strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019. It has officially declared that if Pakistan fails to do so, then the FATF will decide the next step for insufficient progress. This will be decided at the time of October to November in 2019. In the year 1989, a G7 summit was held in Paris in the country of France. There, they planned to set up a mechanism at international level to deal with the mounting concerns about money laundering. Money laundering posed serious threats to the banking system and to the financial institutions. Therefore, the financial action task force was set up in the year 1989 as an intergovernmental body. It consists of 39 members as of now. You may have read in the newspapers that it is a 38-member body. Yes, it was a 38-member body, but after June 21, 2019, it has added one more member. Before 21 June, 2019, that member was designated as an observer in the FATF along with Indonesia. This member is Saudi Arabia, which was given full membership during the recentenary meeting. So, now it is a 39-member body. Of these 39 members, there are 37 countries and two regional organizations. The regional organizations are European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. Also know that India is also a member country in FATF. And note that Pakistan is not a member country of this task force, but today's news article discussion is based on Pakistan and financial action task force only. We will see what is the connection between the two. The main objective of this task force is setting standards and to promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terror financing and other related threats to the international financial system. Now, why is the plenary meeting of FATF so important? This is because it is the decision-making body of the financial action task force and it meets three times in a year. The year that we have mentioned here is not a calendar year and also not like our financial year. The FATF's plenary year begins in July and ends in June. The plenary meetings usually takes place in the months of October, February and June of each plenary year. So, every year, you can revise everything pertaining with the FATF at least three times, that is in February, June and October. Thus, we urge you to take your revision with the current affairs. The plenary meeting that happened recently at Orlando in USA was the third and last meeting of the plenary year that ends on 31st June 2019. The next plenary meeting scheduled to be held in 13th to 18th October 2019. So, we will definitely be revising these things at that time also because the same issues will again come in news maybe with some new developments. We have seen in the news article that FATF has given time till October 2019 to meet the action plan. This was agreed between FATF and the Government of Pakistan. FATF identifies countries with weak measures to combat money laundering and terror financing in two FATF documents that are issued three times a year. It is these two documents that are referred to as grey list and black list. Officially, the FATF does not call using the names grey list and black list. However, reporting newspaper institutions and some governments colloquially use these terms. The grey list is a list that consists the name of those countries that are publicly listed as having weak measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Once these countries are identified as having weak mechanisms, they will be given certain time frame to carry out certain actions in the national and subnational levels in these countries. These are countries that have strategic deficiencies in addressing money laundering and terrorist financing. When some country is listed in this list for review by FATF, it is like an alert to the international and national financial institutions to reduce or limit financial relations with that particular country. Because having a relationship with such a country poses risk in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing and also other issues. That is why Pakistan's foreign minister has said that even just being grey listed costs around 10 billion US dollars every year for Pakistan. This listing will affect the economic growth and development of the particular country and its people. So it will affect Pakistan also. But remember, this grey list is officially called as improving global anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing compliance, ongoing process. If those countries that are listed in the document for review are not making any progress, even though enough time is given, then that country will be listed in another document. That document is officially called as FATF's public statement. In this, FATF lists the countries with serious long-standing strategic deficiencies that have failed to make progress. This list is what is called as blacklist. And this listing is called as blacklisting. Both the lists together are called as high risk and other monitored jurisdictions. Right now there are two countries that are blacklisted by FATF. They are Iran and Democratic People's Republic of Korea, that is North Korea. And there are 12 countries that are in the grey list. Among these 12 countries, two of our neighbors are there. One is Pakistan and the other is Sri Lanka. In the latest plenary meeting, Serbia has been taken out of grey list for the significant improvement that it has made. It has also met all the requirements related to fighting money laundering and terrorist financing. Then if a country is blacklisted, that means the country has failed to take steps against money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF will ask other countries to have effective countermeasures and targeted financial sanctions against that particular country. Also, other countries will make moves to close branches, subsidiaries and banks of the blacklisted country in their territory. Indirectly, it means that the blacklisted country will be isolated from the international financial system. This will have a huge negative impact on that blacklisted country and its people. So, based on this, Pakistan was identified as having these strategic deficiencies with respect to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing in June 2018. And thus it was added to the monitoring review list or the grey list of FATF. The United States, UK, Germany and France urged FATF to list Pakistan in the grey list. The article notes that India supported these countries but it was not among them as a sponsor in ensuring Pakistan was added to the grey list. Pakistan had already been in the grey list in the period 2012 to 2015. The inclusion in 2018 is the second time. Then Pakistan has been given several action plans by FATF and has been given adequate time but it has not implemented the action plans. This time Pakistan could have been put into blacklist but it had support of three nations which urged FATF that Pakistan should not be included in FATF blacklist. The countries that supported Pakistan are obviously first China then Turkey and Malaysia. Therefore, FATF has extended three more months to set up necessary mechanisms to counter terrorist financing. If no improvement happens, we can expect that Pakistan shall be blacklisted in October or by February 2020. The yesterday's article has discussed about support of number of countries required if a country should not be included in blacklist. For blacklisting, it is three. If a Pakistan has three countries to support it, it means it may not be included in blacklist. For a country to be removed from the grey list, it should be supported by at least 15 countries. This time, the FATF official document has stated that Pakistan has not demonstrated a proper understanding of Pakistan's transnational terror financing risk. Transnational terror financing includes cross-border terror financing also. This means that FATF has acknowledged that Pakistan is risky for its neighbour countries, particularly to India. And also, India has been accusing Pakistan as state ponser of terrorism in Kashmir. So, inclusion of the line, Pakistan has not demonstrated a proper understanding of its transnational terror financing risk in the official document of FATF is a moral victory for India. Pakistan has been asked by FATF to enact stricter laws to curb the access of funds to various terror groups operating inside the country. Some of these groups are Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Taiba and also Jaisi Muhammad. We will surely get some more editorials and other news articles in the coming days regarding these developments. We will continue our discussion with them. With this, we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article, which is about an annual report published by the US government on international religious freedom. This article discussion will be helpful in your prelim syllabus under the area current events of national and international importance. Then, the article discussion can also be linked to main syllabus in GS paper 1 under the area Communalism. The discussion will also be helpful in GS paper 2 under international relations within which it comes under the area bilateral groupings and agreements involving India and affecting India's interests. The United States of America has released a report on international religious freedom of 2018. This report documents the situation of religious freedom in most of the countries. There are two institutional mechanisms in US government which are working for international religious freedom. One is the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the other is the Office of International Religious Freedom which is a part of US State Department. Both these are established under the US Law of International Religious Freedom Act. The State Department's report normally documents violations of religious freedom in every country in the world, whereas the US Commission recommends certain countries to be designated as countries of particular concern. Countries of particular concern means those countries that commit systematic ongoing and aggregates or horrifying violations of religious freedom. There is one another list maintained by the US government that is called as tier 2 countries. Tire 2 countries are those countries that at present does not require designation as countries of particular concern but require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom in these countries. Note that India has been placed as tier 2 country by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom for the year 2018. The news article is not talking about the annual report by the US Commission but it talks about the annual report which was recently released by the State Department of the US government. In India we know that since 2014 the ruling party in Indian government is Bharatiya Janata party. The numbers of the BJP party within the alliance has actually increased in the recent election compared to the 2014 general elections. This report published by the US has criticized the BJP office bearers for hate speech and criticized the government of India for reportedly protecting cow vigilante groups. Cow vigilante groups here refers to the group of people who attack predominantly the Islamic members. This attack may be due to a rumor that some number of cattle is being transported, a rumor that someone is having beef in their home. Several incidents have taken place in India in the last five years that are alleged to be associated with mobs attacking and killing such minorities. These mobs were referred by the report as the violent extremist Hindu groups. The report had listed 18 attacks against the victims who are not from Hindu religion and who are belonging to these scheduled castes. In these 18 attacks around eight persons were reportedly killed in violence linked to cow protections. Now protecting cow vigilante group means let us understand this with an example. Let us imagine a mob or a group of violently behaving people has attacked the person because he had beef. Now FIR has to be registered for the murder of the individual. The US report criticizes the government that it protects them from punishment and from legal proceedings. We could not see news such as a cow vigilante gets life imprisonment for killing a person from the minority group. The conviction rate for such offenses carried out by cow protection groups is very less. These could be some of the reasons why the US government criticizes Indian government for protecting cow vigilante groups in its report. The report has also stated that inflammatory speeches were made by senior party members of the Hindu majority Bhartya Janata party. It also noted a statement made by a member of Indian parliament on February 7, 2018. The member of the ruling party at that time has said that Muslims had no business staying in India and Muslims should instead settle in Bangladesh and Pakistan since they were responsible for the partition of India. In addition to the violence against the Islamic community the report also mentioned about various Christian NGOs that had documented 300 to 500 cases of alleged violence against Christian priests and churches all over India. Also that the state government of Jharkhand is pursuing an anti-Christian agenda. Certain official of the US government has asked the leadership of the Indian government to quickly condemn acts of violence on the basis of religion and also to make perpetrators or the offenders accountable for their actions. The major ruling party in the ruling alliance that is the BJP has said that there is a presumption or assumption in that report of US government. That is there is a grand design or plan behind the violence against minority in India. They have defended by saying that these attacks or murders are carried out because of local disputes and by criminal mindsets. As we have been seeing in news the US Secretary of State is coming to India reportedly to have a meeting with the external affairs minister of India on June 25 that is day after tomorrow. The main theme of the discussion will be about the trade related discussions and any other announcement whether India will get any exemption about importing oil and benefits under the generalized system of preferences. But with the timing of the release of this report on international religious freedom it is also speculated that India may arise this issue as well with the US Secretary of State when he comes on June 25. The visit of US Secretary of State will also prepare the ground for a proposed bilateral meeting between the head of US government and the head of Indian government on the silence of the G20 summit. The G20 summit will take place in Osaka in Japan next week on June 27 and 28. Now there is one another article in the same lines in the newspaper today which is titled as US report expresses concern on communal violence in India. This article talks about few other things that was not covered by the front page article. This article talks about the violence of a particular Islamic community called as Uggas. They are minority in China and it is stated that they are undergoing persecution in China. In August 2018 the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination has stated that around 10 lakh Uggas Muslims could be in detention camps in Xinjiang province of China. The committee has asked to release all of them. It stated that China has arrested them in the pretext of countering terrorism. This news article highlights that the report includes details such as central and state governments as well as parties in India that have taken steps to affect Muslim practices and institutions. Now this could indirectly mean one of the Muslim practices that is Triple Talak. The report states that the Indian government challenged the minority status of Muslim educational institutions in the Supreme Court. Here they were referring to the central government in Supreme Court which challenged against the minority status to the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Then the proposals that were designed to erase Muslim contributions to Indian history, one of these is to rename Indian cities with Muslim provenance for history, particularly the renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj. These activities of the government have also further fueled communal tensions in the region. These are some of the issues mentioned in the report with respect to the religious freedom in India. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. Moving on to the last discussion for the day which is about the wild yak. The analysis of this news article will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance and then also under general issues on environmental ecology. Before seeing the news article let us see about wild yak and two other animals which are Himalayan tar and white bellied musk deer which are mentioned in the news article. First let us see about wild yak. It is the bovine species which is native to the Himalayas. Bovine means the animals of the cattle group like cow, buffalo, etc. Wild yak is found largely in the higher altitude regions of India and China. In India it is found in Ladakh region. It is classified as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Here IUCN is the international union for conservation of nature. Then also wild yak is protected in India under Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. It is listed under Schedule 1 of this act. Schedule 1 ensures maximum legal protection for the animals. Further wild yak is also listed in Appendix 1 of sites. Sites is the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. Appendix 1 of sites includes species which are threatened with extinction. If you see trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. Now let us see about Himalayan tar. You can guess from the name that Himalayan tar is native to the Himalayas. This animal is found in the countries of India, China and Nepal. If you see tar belongs to family of goat and sheep. Himalayan tar is classified as near threatened under the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Then it is also protected under Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Now let us see about white belly musk deer. This deer is also called as Himalayan musk deer. It is found in the countries of India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. They also live at high altitudes. They are classified as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Then it is also protected under Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. This species is also listed in Appendix 1 of Sites. These are the informations you should know with respect to the prelims examination. Now let us see the news article. The researchers have used the dung which is the excreta of yak to understand the vegetation and climate of the past. Also they have tried to connect this research to find out why the mega herbivores such as the woolly rhino and mammoth went extinct. The researchers have collected the dung sample from Chamoli district of Uttarakhand during both summer and winter season. Then they have carried out the botanical analysis of the yak's dung to decode the diet of yak. They found a good diversity of pollen, spores and phytoliths in the yak's dung. Phytoliths means the silica or sand bodies that are found in plants. From this the researchers were able to conclude that yak preferred a variety of food from simple grass to leaves and fruits of woody trees. The diversity of diet was high especially during summer season since the yak could walk up to 50 kilometers in search of food. So the researchers were able to see that the yak is able to modify its diet between the summer and winter months. This is how yak is able to sustain in the high altitude regions of Himalayas. The researchers have indicated that the yak was able to modify its diet according to the climate change of the past. One of the authors of this research paper has told that the end of Pleistocene epoch which happened 11700 years ago after which the Holocene epoch started got a change in vegetation and also introduced humans to the planet. So those giant mammoth and woolly rhino which used to live with the yak about 18000 to 20,000 years ago that is in the Pleistocene epoch were not able to adapt to these changes. Hence the author mentions that these animals went extinct. The yak dung analysis also helped to map out the different plants and trees in that area and the analysis will also help the researchers to find out reasons for the extinction of woolly rhino and giant mammoth. It is called as paleo environmental studies or simply paleoecology. So paleoecology means using the fossils to understand how the species or the environment has evolved. The author of this research paper has said that across the world many researchers are working on coprolite that is fossilized dung of extinct animals. A comparison of the present results with the extinct ones can help the researchers to understand more about climatic factors of the past epoch and also the adaptation strategies of the mega herbivores that lived during those years. Also the study will help researchers to understand about the past vegetation of an area. Now from this news article try to understand the importance of the research from the knowledge point of view. With this we have come to the end of our analysis session. Moving on to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. Now in this first question the question asks for the correct statement. If you see the first statement it is correct because the national anti-profit hearing authority is constituted according to the provisions of Central Goods and Services Act of 2017. This is correct and it is constituted under the section 171 of this act. This we discussed during our analysis. Now if you look at the second statement it is not correct because the role of national anti-profit hearing authority is to ensure that the reduction in tax rates and the benefits of input tax credit to the customers by way of co-insurable reduction in prices. This also we discussed during our analysis. But here if you see it is given as the role of the authority is to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India. This is the role of competition commission of India not the role of national anti-profit hearing authority. Since the question asks for the correct statement here statement one is the correct. So, correct option to this question is option A1 only. Now if you look at the second question it says in the context of which of the following there are suggestions for some countries to be included in the statements of improving global anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing compliance, ongoing process and public statement. Now the given terms are nothing but the official technical terms used by the financial action task force. So, the correct answer to this question is option C financial action task force. But also remember that these are the terms used colloquially as gray list and black list of FATF. The statement improving global anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing compliance ongoing process refers to gray list and the public statement of FATF refers to the black list. Now let us see one practice main question based on GS paper 2. Unbalanced geopolitics of southern Asian region needs balanced proactive smart diplomacy by India exam. So, for this first you have to talk about the unbalanced geopolitics of southern Asian region like we discussed during our analysis about how the glory of US is fading and how it is unwilling to take any actions to maintain its regional influence. Then you can talk about how Russia and China are jointly and individually challenging US's preeminence and also how they are pulling other countries towards them. Then you can especially talk about emergence of China pivot and how it is shaping regional geopolitics from Iran to Central Asia and from South China Sea to Indian Ocean. Now for the balanced proactive smart diplomacy by India you can talk about the five layers of balancing act by India which we discussed during the analysis. You need not mention as five layers you can just mention as points like you can talk about balancing the desire of India to get closer to both US and China as it may backfire because if India gets closer to US then China will not like it and if India gets closer to China then US will not like it. Then how India should to focus its balancing acts so that it will drive its West Asia policy like how it should take care of energy and other interests with Iran and not alienate US, Saudi Arabia and Israel and also not alienate Iran because it might affect India in the long run. Then how India can handle the Russia-China partnership based on the continental strategy. Then how India can handle Pakistan and the strategic partnership between Pakistan and China also. Then the balancing act required in Afghanistan which is very much necessary for India to secure its national security. Then you can finish by saying that engaging in a delicate balancing game is the need of the hour. You can also add your own viewpoints based on today's analysis. With this we have come to the end of all our sessions. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates on civil service examination preparation.